He is moving again, walking around her, and she focuses on his movements. Even when he isn’t touching her, Cassie can feel the heat of him, the movement of air, just a sense. The touches are welcomed, and she leans into them, jumping a little when he nips at her hip. It doesn’t hurt – it wasn’t mean to – but it startles her all the same, and she leans away momentarily, eyes widening.
But, when he comes back he is gentle again, and she relaxes. When he speaks, she has almost forgotten that she asked a question. It has been a long time since she engaged in real conversation with anyone except her sister and her grandfather, so she’s not a great conversationalist either. He doesn’t answer the question, and the second nip doesn’t catch her by surprise. She parries this time by reached out to nip lightly back, judging where he is by the most recent of his touches. Like him, the touch is not meant to hurt, simply to engage in the game.
“I’ve never named anyone before,” she stalls. “Ghost seems so unoriginal. Also less like a name than a description.” A pause, a chance for him to offer his actual name, and finally she relents. “I’ll call you Vader, I guess. It’s something I’ll remember.” A name from her past, a snippet; her uncle on her mother’s side that she’s never met, but her uncle and grandfather occasionally reminiscence about. And, well, since she’s talking, she figures she might as well fill the silence. “I’m supposed to be on my way to Nerine. That’s where Grandfather and Carwyn, my sister, have gone; apparently we’re going to live there. Because we can’t live in the Tundra anymore.”
cassady